day 3 - Blogabond

This was the day we were all dreading. Phoenix to San Francisco, San Francisco to LA and then LA to Kona and all in economy! The guy on the desk at Phoenix did his best to get us on a flight to LA but it wasn't to be however he did manage to move us so that we weren't right at the very back of the plane so that was something. The flights weren't too bad -it was the getting on and off. In fact at one airport we were just left there as the plane didn't have a gate and so had to unload on the tarmac. With Abbies leg bad there was no way she would have got down the steps. Eventually they did manage to find a "slope" for us and another person who had a broken back. Then we were again expected to manhandle Abbie and the wheel chair up some steps into the air port building. Thankfully a guy who was unloading the baggage got us into the lift so thank you who ever you were that was really helpful unlike many of the other people we encountered.

Eventually, after hours of peering out on cloud and endless ocean we got our first glimpse of Hawaii - Mauna Kea poking through a fairly thick cloud cover. We could see the cinder cones and the observatories. Then it was down to the coast and Kona airport.

Here they brought a lift in for Abbie and there was no terminal building to have to get into.

getting off the plane Hawaii style!

The girls couldn't believe how laid back it was there with just little huts and benches on the side of the runway. The air was thick and heavy with the sweet smell of the tropical flowers that were all around us. We got our bags and made our way to the rental car place. everyone was really friendly and helpful at the airport in contrast to the mainland.

then it was party game time! How could we get all our luggage in the small American boot of the car?? Well, the girls and I stood back and let Nick get on with it. Thirty minutes or so later we all squeezed around the luggage in the car and we were on our way to Waimea. Slightly worrying that we were on the dry side of the island and it was raining but then again the Cowley family can break pretty much any drought!

We were a bit worried about our accommodation having seen a few bad reviews however it was clean and functional for one night so it was fine.

And so to bed.

written by

AnneC on August 7, 2009 from Waimea, United States

from the travel blog: summer 09

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